


The Galra Sickness

by Sabaisme



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Falling In Love, Illnesses, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-19
Updated: 2017-03-24
Packaged: 2018-10-07 22:28:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10371132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sabaisme/pseuds/Sabaisme
Summary: Keith falls ill with a very common illness for galra's. Until now, it was unknown if humans could fall ill to it too. Poor Lance is the living proof that is does.The two are locked up together in the castle's hospital wing, so they won't make the others sick, until they're fine again. Of course, a lot can happen with two hormonal, ill fallen teens that are being locked up.If only they had known what the galra sickness could do to a person.





	1. One

Just another regular day in space was about to happen, except it was not. Keith woke up with a terrible headache and couldn’t stop sneezing. It was still early so he tried to repress it, so he wouldn’t wake his drama queen neighbor up. He probably just gotten sick or something, which was already weird since Keith never really got sick. 

What was even weirder, he seemed to have transformed himself when he was asleep. It isn’t weird for Keith to turn galra, he could pretty much command when he wanted to. Of course, when he got really angry, he has less of a control over his galra side. He must’ve had a bad dream, and transformed without being conscious. Still, he wasn’t fully galra. He had his claws, but no fur or ears. He seemed to have a few big purple spots on his body and when he walked to the bathroom to see himself, his eyes were yellow but they didn’t glow as they usually did. 

No problem, he’ll just transform back. This must have to do something with the fact that he wasn’t conscious when he transformed. But when he tried, he couldn’t get back to human form. Shit, this was problem. 

As much as Keith hated it, he needed to ask some help from Coran. He’d probably already would awake and ready to start his day. Keith quietly walked to kitchen, and was greeted with two concerned looking faces. Shiro and Coran were both mumbling a few words to one another, while drinking the alien replacement for coffee. 

‘’I’m sick, and something’s wrong with me,’’ Keith said, sniffling a bit. Coran and Shiro immediately went into action, but tried to repress their concerns. Keith still knew they were concerned about him, but was thankful of them trying to not show it too much. 

Once he was seated in a nice comfy chair in the hospital wing, the truth came out. ‘’I’m afraid you’ve got the Galra sickness, but don’t worry, it won’t kill you!’’ Coran said, as he checked Keith’s temperature. Keith looked a bit confused, though. 

‘’It’s like the galra version of the chicken-pox, but a bit different.’’ Shiro explained, calmly. So it really wasn’t deadly. Keith didn’t think much of it. Nothing that a good old healing pot couldn’t help him with, right?

‘’Most of the galra get their sickness when they are in their childhood, but since you’re a Halfling, it’s a bit different.’’ Coran added. He was done checking for Keith’s temperature, which was extremely high but normal for the galra sickness. 

‘’Okay…’’ Keith said, looking a bit confused. He had accepted his galra side, as did the rest, but he couldn’t help and get overwhelmed sometimes. ‘’So, how long do I need to be in the healing pod for?’’ 

Coran laughed a bit. ‘’I’m afraid the healing pods are useless for the galra sickness. No, you just need to rest and take some medicines.’’ He turned around to look for the right medication, but quickly turned around again to add something to what he just said. ‘’And you need to stay away from the rest, I’m not sure how human react to the galra sickness. Allura and I can’t get contained with it, and neither can Shiro.’’ Keith almost asked why Shiro couldn’t, but remembered he was injected against all space viruses when he was still a gladiator. 

‘’So, I’ll have to hang out here all day? With nothing to do?’’ He asked, frowning a bit before he started to cough. 

‘’I’m afraid so,’’ Coran said, ‘’I’ll let Shiro bring you some breakfast later. But for now, grab some of your stuff and I’ll lock you up in here.’’ Keith thought he was being way too enthusiastic in the early morning hours, but did as he was said. 

Just as he went, Lance came in. He was covered with his blanket and looked almost even worse than Keith. 

‘’Sick?’’ Shiro asked, before Lance could even open his mouth. Lance nodded but stopped quickly as his head started to hurt. ‘’Oh boy,’’ Shiro said, as he looked over to Coran. 

Lance was placed in the seat, where Keith just sat seconds ago, and checked for his temperature. ‘’Well, would you look at that! Human can get the galra sickness!’’ Coran said, being way more interested in this bit of information than feeling sorry for Lance. 

‘’Been hanging out with Keith much?’’ Shiro asked, to a very confused Lance.

‘’We trained a bit yesterday, why? What is this galra sickness? Did he make me sick or something?’’ Lance looked angry, but didn’t make an attempt to get up. 

‘’Hmmm, well you could say it like that. Keith is suffering from the galra sickness right now, you must’ve gotten the virus from his while training yesterday.’’ Coran said.  
‘’Don’t worry, it’s like the chicken-pox, but just a little bit different. It’ll be over before you’ll know it.’’ Shiro said, with a warm smile. ‘’Don’t get your hopes up for the healing pods, thought. They don’t work on the galra sickness.’’ 

Lance sighed, frowned and let himself fall back against his chair. Just as he did, Keith came back with the bare minimum of his stuff. ‘’Oh no.’’ He said, as he saw the sick Lance in his chair. He knew immediately they were suffering from the same kind of flu. Only Lance wasn’t turning galra or something. 

Lance narrowed his eyes. ‘’This is your fault with you dirty viruses!’’ He already tried to get up, but Shiro pushed him back in his chair and Lance didn’t have the energy to try and fight him.

‘’Alright, you two will have to stay together today. Shiro and I will bring to two your breakfast and your medications. Please don’t kill each other.’’ Coran said, clapping his hands together. Both of the boys groaned. 

Shiro and Coran left, and as soon as they did, the bickering started. 

‘’This is your fault, you know.’’ Lance started, with his narrowed eyes.

‘’Do you really think I did this on purpose? I didn’t ask to be sick.’’ Keith bit back. 

‘’Out of all the people you could have infected, it had to be me. Suspicious, don’t you think?’’ Lance said. 

‘’Believe me, if I could’ve infected anyone else, I would’ve!’’ Keith snapped back, growling a bit under his voice. Damn these galra hormones. 

‘’Sure you would! And still I’m the one that’s sick!’’ Lance said, again. 

‘’Argh! Would you just shut up, there’s nothing I can do about it. This sucks, you suck, but we have to make the best of it. So I’ll stay on this side of the room and you on the other.’’ Keith said, trying to end their bickering. 

Lance gasped a bit at the ‘you suck’ bit, but went on anyway. ‘’Maybe I want this side of the room.’’

‘’Fine, do you want this side of the room? I’ll take the other.’’ Keith said, rolling his eyes.  
‘’Nah, I’ll take the other.’’ Lance said, grabbing his blanket and most of the hospital pillows he could hold. Keith couldn’t help but groan loudly. 

Both of them tried to make themselves a bit comfortable. Keith had a small couch, with a few pillows and a blanket. He brought a book of his and started to read a bit. Lance had made a pillow fort against one of the healing pods, and fell asleep in it. Not that he had much to do anyway. 

Fifteen minutes later, Shiro came in with two plates of goo and two bottles of medication. He didn’t wake Lance up, but placed his plate in front of the pillow fort. He didn’t even ask why there was a pillow fort. Then he stayed around until Keith was done with his breakfast.

‘’Think you’ll be alright?’’ Shiro asked, while Keith was swallowing his meds. 

‘’Yeah, no need to worry.’’ Keith simply said. Shiro nodded, and left a few minutes later. He had a busy day of training.

Lance woke up twenty minutes later, and was a bit confused when he saw the plate with goo. He shoved it away but still took his meds. This caught Keith’s attention. ‘’Don’t you need to eat?’’ He tried to ask.

‘’I don’t feel like eating.’’ Lance responded. They were almost having a civilized conversation. 

‘’I’ll eat if I want to, and right now I don’t.’’ Lance was trying to fight again, Keith knew this. 

Keith shrugged. ‘’Whatever.’’ And so he ended their brief conversation. 

After that, Lance started to get really annoying. Coran hadn’t let him get some stuff to entertain himself with, so he tried to entertain himself. For a while he just looked out the window with his blanket wrapped around him. Then he started to breath against the window and draw pictures in the fog that was left behind. 

That wasn’t all that annoying, but he was soon done with that. He got up and grabbed a pen and some paper from the desk, which was on Keith’s side. So much for their rule. Still, Keith wasn’t bothered with this, as long as he was kept alone. 

Lance started to draw, which kept him entertained for half an hour. Then he turned his chair around to face Keith. ‘’I’m bored,’’ He said, as if that was Keith’s problem.

‘’So?’’ Keith said, putting his book down for a second. Lance didn’t respond to that and started to jiggle around in his chair. 

‘’What’re you reading?’’ He asked like a noisy child. God, Keith wished he was still tired and sleeping.

‘’A book,’’ Keith was already irritated and didn’t think that saying the title of his book to Lance would help that. Lance probably didn’t even read. 

Lance rolled his eyes. ‘’What’s it called?’’ 

‘’The Catcher in the Rye, you probably don’t know it. There isn’t a movie made based of it.’’ Keith answered. To that, Lance scoffed. 

‘’I happen to know that book and have read it several times!’’ Lance said, all offended. ‘’It’s my baby brother’s favorite book.’’ 

To this Keith put his book down. ‘’Oh.’’ He said, which was followed with an awkward silence. Lance turned around again and started drawing again. Keith returned to reading, feeling very awkward.

Several minutes later, Lance turned around and held up a piece of paper. ‘’Look! I drew you!’’ He said, all pleased with himself. The actual drawing wasn’t that bad, but neither that good.

‘’That’s not me!’’ Keith yelled, all offended because Lance had drawn and even uglier version of his galra form. 

‘’It totally is! Look!’’ Lance said, as he quickly stood up and sat down in front of the couch Keith was on. He tried to point some things out that should resemble Keith. 

‘’I look like a cat,’’ Keith said, very dryly. To that, Lance started to laugh out loud. Showing all his teeth, and to Keith’s horror, a few were sharp.  
‘’Your teeth!’’ Lance yelled, pointing at them as he jumped up from his spot. Lance threw his hand against his mouth and started to feel his teeth. He yelped when they were sharper than he remembered. 

After both of them panicked for several minutes, Keith started to yell for Coran and Shiro, or anyone who would hear him. To his relief, Coran came down running. 

Coran was a bit shocked by this new finding and ordered Lance to strip to his underwear. This revealed several purple spots starting on Lance’s body, especially on his back. Coran concluded that this was but a rare side-affect to the galra sickness on a non-galra. This did not please Lance nor Keith. But there was nothing they could do about it. Coran also ordered Lance to eat his goo, which he did with a sad expression on his face.

Keith was already glad that Lance didn’t seem to blame him for this side effect.


	2. Two

As the day went on, everything got worse. Both of them felt sicker within the minute. Lance was still slowly transforming into a galra, but stopped whining about it after they had dinner. 

Shiro had visited them once more, bringing them a few things that they might like. Or at least to kill some time with. Old altean board games, and if there is one thing that Keith hates, it’s board games. Of course, Lance loved them. 

So that’s how the two of them ended up, sitting on the ground with a lot of blankets and pillows, playing a stupid board game that made no sense. For starters, you needed to at least know somewhat of Altean culture to understand the game. In the end, Lance decided to make his own rules for the game, and still they didn’t understand it. 

It only took them about 15 minutes before they got into a heated argument, which ended with Keith throwing away the board of the game and Lance screaming at him. 

‘’You are such a hot head! Jesus Christ, can’t you at least try and stay calm?!’’ Lance screamed, as he grabbed the board from the ground to throw it at Keith. That just pushed them over the edge to an actual fight. 

Or what you could call a fight, considering both of them were still sick. It ended up with them rolling over the floor and pushing each other. After a few seconds both of them had given up, because they were out of breath and everything hurt. So they ended up laying down next to each other on the cold, hard floor. 

‘’You play like a little child, constantly making up new rules as long as you win,’’ Keith said, between taking breaths. 

This made Lance frown. ‘’Well, you should try and control your temper, you’re no fun to play with anyway.’’ He said, as he looked over to Keith, who was staring at the ceiling. 

‘’Grow up,’’ Keith simply said, as he lifted himself from the floor. Lance looked at him as he walked back to his couch, not feeling the need to stand up himself. 

After a few minutes of weird silence, Lance spoke up. ‘’You should try to have some fun more, fun has nothing to do with age anyway.’’ 

‘’I don’t have time for fun, Lance, and neither do you. We have to save the galaxy.’’ Keith replied, already ready for another argument. 

This made Lance sit up. ‘’Are you serious? Are you really like that?’’ Lance looked really sad, somehow. Mostly because he couldn’t help but to think about his family and what he’d do if any of them would’ve said such a thing. 

Keith, already sitting on the edge of the couch, was ready to come up with a witty reply but stopped in his tracks as he saw Lance. Yes, the sad look confronted him, but the fact that he had two small ears popping from his hair was the real winner. He tried his best not to say or make Lance worried about it, but the guy already understood something must be wrong if Keith looked so shocked. 

Lance first started touching his face and quickly ended up feeling his ears. If he hadn’t been purple, he would’ve been pale. Keith started to mumble some curse words under his breath as he jumped up from where he was sitting. This was all too weird, Lance transforming into a garla and not even knowing if he could transform back eventually. For Keith it was different, he knew he would change back and if not, it wouldn’t matter anyway. 

‘’Does it feel so itchy when you transform?’’ Lance asked, with the saddest face possible. Keith couldn’t help but feel as if he was on the verge of a break down himself. 

‘’It’s the hair that are growing,’’ Keith said softly, ‘’the ears are supposed to hurt, not itch.’’ Lance didn’t meet his eye, but Keith could still see a change in his face. 

‘’Why didn’t they hurt, then?’’ Lance asked, slowly looking up. 

‘’Because yours aren’t real, I think.’’ Keith awkwardly kept out his hand for Lance, which to his surprise Lance accepted. 

‘’I’m sorry, I’m all whiny about my transformation while you’ve gone through it a million times, and which apparently hurt? Jesus, Keith, why didn’t you say so?’’ Lance shook his head a bit.

‘’It only hurts for a few seconds and it’s not that bad. You should try to scratch yourself behind your ears, it’s really comfortable.’’ Keith said. 

Lance’s hand shot up to his ears and started scratching, but to him it did not feel all that good at all. So he switched from scratching his ear to Keith’s ear. To Lance’s surprise, Keith started purring. 

‘’Oh. My God. Keith!’’ Lance couldn’t help but gasp at his new finding. Keith quickly pushed Lance off of him and tried to hide the blush that started to form in his neck. ‘’Galra’s are just big dangerous kittens!’’ 

‘’Please don’t tell the others,’’ Keith said, slightly annoyed, but very much uncomfortable. 

‘’I won’t, this’ll be our little secret.’’ Lance said, with a wink. Keith sighed but started to laugh, which hit Lance in the face like a slap. Both of them had a need to open up to each other, but couldn’t because they were supposed to be rivals. 

It was Keith was tried and open up first, by hugging Lance. ‘’Thanks,’’ He almost whispered. The hug didn’t last very long, but it sure as hell meant a lot. 

‘’Did we just have a bonding moment?’’ Lance tried to tease, but the human parts of his skin were clearly colored red. 

‘’I hope not, I wouldn’t want you to forget this.’’ Keith said, as if it was nothing. As if it was the obvious thing to say. As if Lance could ever react normal to that. 

Lance never replied, anyway. The two of them went and sat down on the couch again. Of course, it didn’t take long before they got bored again. ‘’Your eyes are turning yellow,’’ Lance said, in a very obnoxious way.

Keith wanted to say that Lance’s eyes were also turning yellow, but didn’t. He didn’t want to make the guy feel any worse about it. Lance took his silence for an invitation to ramble on about it. ‘’I like your eyes better when they’re not all galra, y’know? When you can still see the whites of one’s eye.’’

‘’It would make the galra look less scary, though. Can’t have that.’’ Keith said, suddenly very tired. Lance made a sort of agreeing noise and sat back again. 

The two of them started to feel very numb, as if their brains were too tired to function but their bodies didn’t follow. Both sitting lazily on the couch, with a lot of pillow and cushion, hardly noticed how fast they were feeling worse. 

 

‘’Can you tell me something about your family?’’ Keith mumbled. It’s something he’s been wondering about a lot, but never could ask. Well, now he asked. 

Lance shrugged, not thinking too much of the question. ‘’Well, I’m the oldest and usually the leader of the bunch. So my sister, second in command, has probably taken over that role now. She’s really smart, like almost gifted,’’ Lance paused, feeling the numbness leave his body bit by bit as he talked. ‘’My youngest brother, the baby of the family, is only four years old. Or was, I’m not sure how old he is now since space time is weird.’’ He wished he could keep on rambling like this, but he was started to feel very upset. He missed them, all of them. ‘’I have another sister, she’s like Lance number two. She does anything the same way as me, she really looks up to me,’’ Keith could hear the drastic change of Lance’s voice, but wasn’t all that alarmed. 

‘’They sound nice,’’ Keith said, a bit simple but he meant it. 

Lance nodded, with very teary eyes. ‘’Yeah, they really are. I wish you could meet them.’’ Lance said, with a single tear rolling over his face. Now Keith was alarmed. 

Keith leaned over to Lance and placed his hand on his shoulder. ‘’I’d be honored to meet them and I’m sure we will.’’ Keith wiped the tear of Lance’s face, breaking all boundaries they had left. This morning they had been rivals, now it was all more confusing. 

‘’My mom would probably like you a lot, she loves Hunk and Pidge too.’’ Lance said, pulling a blanket over his and Keith’s shoulder. Keith’s hard was pounding like it never had before. 

Keith tried to crack a smile, to cover how obviously nervous he was getting. ‘’Y’know, you were the first one that accepted my galra side, and now you’re sitting here looking like a galra.’’ He tried to tease, he really did, but it sounded way too serious. 

Lance shrugged. ‘’Well, am I just as cute as you in galra form?’’ 

Keith was dying, he really was. In his mind you could only hear him scream, so excuse him for taking several seconds before replying. ‘’Galra or not, you know you do.’’ It sounded so smooth, he would need a high five from Shiro for that later. 

Lance smiled, but the red spots of skin showed through his disguise. He was just as nervous as Keith, but tried to play it cool. ‘’Always the cute one, never the hot one.’’ 

Keith knew they were playing a game of who could hold out the longest, but he couldn’t. He moved his hand from Lance’s shoulder and grabbed his face. Lance leaned in, so Keith knew this is what they both wanted. The small space between them was gone as their lips touched softly. Lance’s lips were smooth against Keith’s dry lips, as they started to move around. 

It didn’t last long, they were both too sick for a full on make-out session. 

‘’Do you still hate me?’’ Keith asked, still with his hands on Lance’s face. 

‘’Of course not! Are you stupid, we just kissed!’’ Lance looked offended, but still pecked Keith on the forehead. ‘’I always thought our first kiss would happen in a heated argument, though.’’ Lance confessed, leaving Keith to suffer for the rest of the night. 

A night they spend together, sleeping on the couch while hugging one another for body warmth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the sweet comments!  
> Is there anything you guys would like to see next?


	3. Chapter 3

The next morning, both of them had a pretty awful start. The couch was not made for two people, so both of them were sour to the bone. Lance’s face was covered in dry spit and Keith had some bad morning breath. They were both full galra, even though their transformation hadn’t hurt them. 

Keith was the first to wake up, and since he started moving violently, Lance had no choice but to wake up. At first it was a bit awkward. Both staring at one another with yellow eyes. 

‘’Did we…’’ Keith started to ask, to which Lance answered with a kiss on his forehead. So it wasn’t a dream, they really kissed. 

‘’How longs do you think until they let us out of here?’’ Lance said, not willing to discuss whatever was between them now. 

Keith shrugged, desperately wanted to keep talking about their kiss. ‘’Lance, I think we need to talk.’’ 

‘’That sounds serious,’’ Lance said, with a frown. Already feeling that this leads to no good. 

‘’Listen, Lance. What happened between us, we weren’t really thinking straight and I don’t want to fight with you anymore.’’ Keith didn’t dare to meet Lance’s eyes.

‘’Yeah. So we stopped fighting and kissed. That’s way better, right?’’ Lance said, very slowly. 

‘’No, that’s not what I mean,’’ Keith said, biting his lip. ‘’Don’t you ever think about the future? Lance, we’re in war right now, and who knows if we make it out of it alive?’’ 

Lance frown got deeper. ‘’I try not to think of that, it’s stupid to think about such a thing if you don’t know.’’ His voice had gotten lower. 

‘’And even if we make it out alive,’’ Keith went on, as if Lance hadn’t even said a thing. ‘’I’m part galra, you’re human. You’re going back to earth and I’m not so sure if I will.’’ 

‘’Dude, that’s stuff we should think about after the war and after we are getting into a more serious relationship. Or rather said if.’’ Lance said. ‘’Or you just don’t want to be with me.’’ His voice had gotten smaller and softer but his face showed nothing. 

‘’I’m not sure what I want, or if this is even the time to discuss what I want,’’ Keith said, just as soft as Lance’s voice. 

Lance, finally realizing what Keith just said, crawled of the couch so he could stand up when yelling at Keith. ‘’You are the biggest-‘’ And then Lance stopped. His skin started to move, actual moving. Then his eyes went all white, as he fell to the ground. 

Keith, in a lovely state of panic, ran to Lance and cradled him in his arms. He slowly watched Lance’s ears turn back to human, then the fur crawled back into his skin and before he knew it, he was looking at the Lance he knew best. In all his human skin, and all. 

Keith wanted to get help, he really did. But he couldn’t let go of Lance. He started to whisper quiet words to him, as he touched his face. Slowly, he noticed that Lance was coming back to him. 

‘’Are you alright?’’ Keith asked, doing his best to stay as calm as he could. Lance had his eyes open and was staring at him. Full human eyes. 

‘’What happened?’’ Lance asked, making no effort to crawl out of Keith’s hold. 

‘’I’m not sure, but you went back to human.’’ Keith said, also making no effort to get Lance out of his arms. 

‘’Oh,’’ Lance said, as he slowly started to sit up. ‘’Oh yeah, now I remember. You don’t want to be with me.’’ He didn’t sound angry, but very accusing. 

‘’I do!’’ Keith almost yelled. ‘’I do wanna be with you, but I don’t want to risk losing you.’’ Keith stopped making any form of eye contacts.

‘’Keith,’’ Lance said, with a soft voice. He grabbed Keith by his face, getting closer to him. ‘’I’m not going anywhere.’’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ugh, i hate this fic so much lol. I had such a good idea in my head but now that i'm done with writing it down, it seems rather awkward.   
> I really hope I get better into writing soon lol
> 
> this is the end xoxo

**Author's Note:**

> Did you look it? Should I continue?


End file.
